The Latest Cruise News - Coral Geographer calls again, Covid and more

The Coral Geographer returns to Freo at 9 am on Tuesday 29 November. It seems no time at all since we welcomed her just over a month ago!

Otherwise, as storm clouds gather and white caps build on the ocean, it’s business as usual at the port.

The twelve-hour stoppage threatened by Svitzer for Friday 18 November, did not happen. Australia’s Fair Work Commission suspended the Svitzer tugboat lockout to avoid immediate economic damage – a lockout would have brought Australian ports to a grinding halt. Svitzer and the Unions are back to the drawing board for another six months trying to work out new enterprise bargaining agreements. Fingers crossed.

Credit Jean Hudson

More and more Rottnest ferries and pleasure boats are travelling back and forth from Rottnest as the high season approaches.

Credit Jean Hudson

Ro-Ro’s come and go with mixed cargos of cars, caravans, camper trailers and mining machinery. Approximately 300 – 600 new Teslas arrive every three weeks from China.

Credit Michael Barker

In Cruise News, many more cruise ships are soon expected in Freo with more than 10,000 cruise ship guests expected to visit in the 3 months, October to December. It’s going to be a bumper season – WA is well and truly open for business.

Back in October, the Cruise Industry heavyweights met in Perth for the 6th WA Cruise Exchange. A host of leading cruise lines, including Carnival Australia, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Australian Pacific Touring, MSC Cruises and Ponant attended the four-day cruising conference, along with first-time attendees Heritage Cruises, Coral Expeditions and Viking Cruises.

The conference showcased WA Ports and onshore activities to the world’s leading liners. Pre-pandemic, cruise shipping employed nearly 1,000 people in WA and contributed more than 4262 million to the State’s economy. There are eight WA port destinations: Albany, Broome, Busselton, Dampier, Esperance, Exmouth, Fremantle and Geraldton.

We are in our fourth wave of Covid wih numbers creeping up daily. Covid and cruising now seem to go hand in hand. Cruise ships continue to be the perfect environments for the spread of infectious diseases.

On 13 November, Carnival Cruise Line’s Majestic Princess docked in Sydney after a 12-day cruise to New Zealand, and reported that about 800 of its 3000 guests had tested positive to the virus. She has since departed for Melbourne and Tasmania with new guests on board.

This incident was a grim reminder of the arrival of the Ruby Princess in Sydney in March 2020, which, early on in the pandemic, resulted in 28 deaths and more than 600 infections.

As a result, since 18 November, P&O Cruises Australia, Princess Cruises and Carnival Cruise Line have reintroduced masks for passengers onboard in all public indoor places on their vessels.

As part of the tightening measures, 100% of crew and 95% of passengers over 12 must be fully vaccinated. The remaining 5% must have proof of an accepted medical condition preventing them from receiving a vaccine.

All guests two years of age and over must take a RATs test – a Rapid Antigen Test – within 24 hours of boarding, or a PCR within 48 hours and provide proof of a negative result. Positive passengers have to isolate for five days.

As noted, Coral Geographer arrives on Tuesday 29 November at 9am. She was the first cruise ship to visit this season on 22 October. In the past month she has been over east. This is a ‘turnaround’ visit, meaning she departs again soon after, on Wednesday 30 at 6pm on a 12-night cruise to Broome via the Abrolhos Islands and the Coral Coast.

Coral Geographer, Fremantle 22 October 2022. Credit Jean Hudson

Head down to the port next week to watch her arrive or depart. She is a beautiful small cruise ship.

* STORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS (Unless indicated otherwise) by our Shipping Correspondent, Jean Hudson @jeansodyssey. Jean is also a regular feature writer and photographer here on the Shipping News. You may also like to follow up her informative Places I Love stories, as well as other feature stories and Freo Today photographs, right here.

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